First Same-Sex Wedding Held In West Point Chapel

West Point graduate Brenda Sue Fulton married her partner Penelope Gnesin in the chapel at her alma mater, making them the first same-sex couple to legally wed in the U.S. Military Academy’s Cadet Chapel. None of the chaplains who preside in the chapel belong to denominations that allow them to bless same-sex marriages, so the ceremony was performed by a friend, Army Chaplain Col. J. Wesley Smith. When Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed, the Pentagon advised that use of military facilities would not discriminate based on sexual orientation so long as such use does not violate state or local laws. Fulton and Gnesin have been together for 17 years: